I arrived in Chiang Mai very late—due to a series of travel mishaps [1]. At any rate, I have so far only seen Chiang Mai by night. It is a city of around 200,000 people organized in a very congenial way. The center of the city (which is not very large) is a square old town surrounded by a moat. Some attractive parts of the city’s wall remain—they remind me a bit of the ruins of the walls of Constantinople within modern Istanbul, though less forminable and without the water cisterns.

Other than that the city is organized in a concentric ring fashion, like Houston. There are three “ring” highways that at least attempt to surround the city, the second one ending at City Hall. There are a variety of markets open even late in the evening, including a night bazaar. There are at least a couple of accessible hospitals as well. There are a lot of convenience stores, including 7-Eleven, and full-service gas stations. The city is full of mopeds and motorcycles. A note on the driving—Thai drivers drive on the left side, as they do in Great Britain. However, on small country roads, Thai drivers seem not to be fussed if they happen to drive on the right side of the road as well.

One quirky aspect of Chiang Mai’s road grid is that it is very much based on one-way thoroughfares for the most part, especially within the core of the city. Nor is that the city’s only similarity with Tampa. The roads flood after rains because of poor drainage—as happened when I came from the airport with Bronson, his Thai wife (who comes from a restauranteering family), and their curious and adorable baby boy. The village where Legacy Foundation sits, across the main road from a sizable military base, is on higher ground, and the water runs off from the neighboring mountains down towards the lowland city.

In reading about Chiang Mai as a city, it is the gateway to Northern Thailand. Chiang Mai was long the capital of the Lanna Kingdom, which remined autonomous from Thai rule into the 20^th century, and has a long history of border conflicts with Burma. The city has a lot of temples (for those who are inclined to enjoy Buddhist idols), and a lot of universities, but I have not seen any of either yet. There is plenty of time for that to occur.

The climate is humid or semi-humid and warm, but so far not oppressively hot. I’m a road-weary traveler who has spent two days in the air and in airports, so I’m positively jubilant over being able to go to sleep and hopefully start to sleep off the jet lag. There will be plenty of time to come for second and third thoughts of the city.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/in-the-middle-of-things/